754402 - searching for full names with typos will yield "no results" instead of "best matches"

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Webtools Graveyard :: Phonebook, defect)

Description

[Pomax]

I was searching for "Chris Appleton" on the phonebook and got an "oh noes" no results found page. Chris turns out to be listed as Christopher Appleton, and searching just for "Appleton" yields his entry, but it would be better if I didn't have to question whether the name someone gives me is their real name or a shortened version, and Phonebook simply searches for nearest hits when an exact match doesn't yield any results. Especially since the domain is human names, searching for "X Y" (or even "X Y Z" etc) is basically searching for the set (X OR Y) with results that match (X AND Y) ranked higher than (X XOR Y).

Comment 1

[:Atoll]

Our LDAP-based phonebook installation doesn't permit this sort of free-text searching at this time. In the future, were we to migrate to a more useful backend, I would absolutely endorse nearest-match searching were it available in an effective manner, but it isn't to us at this time.